A few years before she died, my mother had her best friend's front yard "flocked" but was too embarrassed to tell her she was behind it! For Christmas that year, I gave them both Beanie Babies and made them open their presents together. Her friend guessed the "secret" right away!

Homemade ornament from my late Aunt Helen.

Cutie pie pixie gift tag!

A pretty gift tag...

Sparkling and festive glittering snowflake chandelier!

A Colorful, kitschy kitchen!

Of all my decorations, I look forward to bringing these angels out every year!

I purchased them on Christmas Eve of my son's first Christmas at a consignment shop in Florence SC, 18 years ago!

My mother and grandmother, Bitty drove up from Georgia to be with us for a week! It snowed on the 23rd!

I have so many happy memories of that Christmas!

Adorable child's vintage Christmas apron!

Fun wreath made with kitschy thrift store finds!

Cute vintage finds....

Winking Santa cup hanging out with baking spices....

My son, Richard gave me this Reindeer Beanie Baby when he was little. It was our tradition to visit a Secret Santa Shop each year. I would give him $5.00 for each person on his list. One year I got so tickled because I gave him $20 for 4 people and he brought me $12.00 change!! I think I got a bookmark that year... LOL!

It will cover anything and is totally worth the $8.00 bucks and trip to Home Depot!

Cover Stain is an oil based spray primer that blocks stains and bonds to anything. "Bonding" is the key word. Because these skates are made of synthetic material (like plastic or vinyl), I wasn't sure if spray paint would adhere to them without primer and didn't want to make a mess finding out!

Use a coat or two, whatever it takes to cover it good.

I don't really recommend it but it was cold out the day I did this, so you can see that I worked inside. I was really careful not to make a mess but the primer smelled BAD! I moved the cardboard and skates into the kitchen and turned on the exhaust fan until they dried, overnight!

I spray painted my skates in "Ballet Slipper Pink" by Krylon

I used a hot glue gun to add some lace, crocheted snowflakes and a couple of blingy vintage snowflake pins.

I laced them with seam binding in aqua... the nice thing about this is that if I decide to, I can change the laces to another color.

I wanted to add snow to the blades... I asked some crafters and got answers for products that look like snow. To save money and a trip to the craft store, I opted to glop on some white craft paint and sprinkle generously with a couple of different white glitters I had on hand.

Lacing seam binding into the tiny holes without unraveling it was the trickiest part. I used the hole end of a very large needle to help me stuff the ribbon into the lace holes and then used the pointy side to pull it though the back. Estimating how much ribbon to use was impossible so I cut off way more than I needed!